EU OS

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Use Cases ​

WARNING

This page is work in progress. Related issue: #5

To make EU OS a success, it should support a large number of use cases and consequently a large user base. This helps to gather political support and funding for continous improvements and innovation.

NOTE

The following use case serve as an inspiration and do not imply a partnership unless explicitly expressed.

Some regions outside of Europe realised already the benefits of an operating system under their control (for the best and the worst of their users):

  • Astra Linux 🇷🇺 :

    Astra Linux is a Russian Linux-based computer operating system (OS) that is being widely deployed in the Russian Federation to replace Microsoft Windows.

  • Kylin and Neokylin 🇨🇳 :

    Kylin is an operating system developed by academics at the National University of Defense Technology in the People's Republic of China since 2001. […] Together, Kylin and Neokylin have 90% market share of the government sector.

This leaves no doubt on the the feability of large-scale Linux deployments in the public sector. It is only a matter of political support, priority and funding.

Early Adopters ​

The following use cases may be feasible with a few months up to two years of preparation.

Schools ​

The technical equipment of schools varies a lot between schools of the same country and even more across different countries. Some schools rely heaily on devices proposed by Google or Apple. Other schools have devices managed by a central body, rarely a local system administator and more often by tech-savy teachers. Devices may be too old to support a migration to the newest Windows release with again higher hardware requirements.

Schools usually have different types of desktop seats:

  • class rooms equipped with computers (e.g. for programming classes)
  • teacher offices equipped with computers (e.g. to prepare classes)
  • personal device for pupils (rare, think of iPads and Chromebooks)

Rarely teachers are offered a personal corporate device. It seems that schools commonly make resources available in the cloud that can be accessed by teachers on their own or family computers.

References:

Cities and Communes ​

Only few cities have migrated to Linux so far. Compatibility with the federal goverment and the plethora of business processes a city owns are a challenge. Oftentimes, reliance is strong on Microsoft Office, which historically did not run on Linux. With Microsoft 365 working in the browser, a work-around may be possible.

Few examples of cities are known that want to migrate to Linux or already migrated. In both cases, EU OS could help.

References:

Data Protection Authorities ​

Data protection authorities have good reasons to switch to EU OS:

  • Leading by Example: EU OS is data protection-friendly and gives the organisations as much control about data flows as they want.
  • Strengthening Independence: EU OS offers data protection authorities to investigate without any conflicts of interests all organisations relying on operating systems other than EU OS. They would just need to switch when the majority would have adopted EU OS. Sad! 😜

While ahead of migrations to Windows 11, data protection authorities wonder about alternatives, no data protection authority has yet announced to migrate to free alternatives. Many data protection authorities rely indeed on the central administration for their IT and have little influence on the process.

Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT) ​

Computer emergency response teams are often full of technical experts that usually have some knowledge about Linux already. They may benefit from the flexibility and tools that Linux offers to carry out their investigations and analysises. EU OS could be a good fit.

Large-Scale Use Cases (Late Adopters) ​

The following use cases may require several years of preparation. This is not necessarily specific to EU OS, but rather specific to the complex requirements of the given use case. A migration to Linux may require to make all business software compatible with Linux first.

CERN ​

The US Fermilab and the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, already maintained their own operating system in the past: Scientific Linux. Unfortunately it reached end of life in 30 June 2024.

While CERN certainly can manage their devices without the support of EU OS, collaborating with the large hub of innovators would certainly strengthen EU OS to the benefit of all.

References:

French Gendarmerie 🇫🇷 ​

The French Gendarmie uses currently a customised version of Ubuntu called "Gendbuntu". If EU OS would be used instead, resources could be mutualised across all users of EU OS.

Gendbuntu is possibly one of the largest Linux-on-desktop deployments in the EU public sector with about 73000 seats.

References:

Linux Plus 1 in Schleswig-Holstein 🇩🇪 ​

The region (‘Land’) Schleswig-Holstein in the north of Germany prepares currently the migration of their entire public administration to a Linux desktop. It is unclear which operating system will be used. Rumors say it will be based on KDE Plasma. If EU Os wuold be used, resources could be mutualised across all users of EU OS.

This migration could become one of the largest Linux-on-desktop deployment in the EU public sector with 30000 of seats.

References:

European Institutions 🇪🇺 ​

A specific goal of EU OS is to get on the desktop of the administration of the European Union, including the European Commission, Parliament and Court of Justice. However, so far no migration plans to Linux are publicly known yet. Sad! 😜